There is a long tradition of creating mazes throughout history and across the world. This article gives details of mazes you can visit and those that you can tackle on paper.

The Art of Celtic Knots

Stage: 2

Article by NRICH team

Published February 2011.

About 1200 years ago Irish Monks worked for years to create a masterpiece in 'illuminated' script, called the Book of Kells . This ancient book is now kept in Trinity College Library in Dublin.

Look closely at this piece of one page (above) and you will see a Celtic Knot design inside the huge fancy letter. This type of design has been studied by many people. Some people like Celtic Knots for artistic reasons, others are fascinated by the mathematics of the designs.

Many Celtic knots are continuous - as if they are made from one long piece of string. So they are 'mathematical' knots. Others are made up of sections, with each section made so that if you trace along the line you come back to where you started. So these are 'links' of mathematical knots.

The NRICH Project aims to enrich the mathematical experiences of all learners. To support this aim, members of the
NRICH team work in a wide range of capacities, including providing professional development for teachers wishing to
embed rich mathematical tasks into everyday classroom practice. More information on many of our other activities
can be found here.